Friday Roundup: Gratitude and New Challenges

This Friday Roundup is the last post I’ll publish as Managing Editor of NextBillion.net. It feels weird to write these words, to be honest… It has been a huge privilege to be part of this project, and witness the growth and evolution of an industry that promotes a new purpose and intention for markets, enterprise and profits.

I would like to thank the NextBillion community at large, but especially those whose trust and advice have allowed me to make a contribution over the last few years. Rob Katz, Al Hammond and Virginia Barreiro, who welcomed me to WRI almost four years ago and continue to be good friends and mentors. Daniel Gonzalez, Jenny Melo and the team over at the Español team, who shared the vision of bringing NextBillion closer to home, and several other members of this community whose ideas and work continue to inspire and guide my work and career.

I make this transition confident that NextBillion is headed in the right direction. Last summer, as I made the first of my several recent transitions (moving to New York to enroll in graduate school), NextBillion was going through a transition of its own, bringing new partners on board, welcoming Scott Anderson into the team and consolidating newnodes in the network. Scott is doing an excellent job and it’s been my privilege to work with him in the last months. With his day-to-day oversight, and the strategic vision of the site’s partners and advisors, I’m excited about the direction NextBillion is headed in the future. I’m sure you’ll share the feeling with the changes and announcements coming up in the next few months.

I’m also very happy to see NextBillion en Español and NextBillion Brasil growing in their own contexts, and the network of sites sharing content ever more fluidly. This has been possible thanks to the support of partners like AVINA and several other allies. NextBillion is achieving its mission in more places than ever before, and has plans to expand even further.

As of next steps, I’m not going too far and will stay on board as Staff Writer. I’m excited to start a new project and ready to spend this coming summer in Kenya, where I’ll be looking into a couple of questions that ring loudly in my mind recently: where and how markets and aid can work together, and what the “mobile revolution” will mean in the context of BoP ventures. Like many other issues in this nascent field, I think we’re just starting to understand the answers to these important questions. NextBillion will continue to be the place where I share my learnings and reflections as they evolve.

Thank you, partners, advisers and readers of NextBillion, for making this a great experience and for allowing me the privilege of playing this role. I look forward to working with you in many new projects in years to come.